


Twisted Thorns

by kiapurity



Series: Alternative Branching Paths [3]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: F/M, angst so stupid that it hurts, empusa express, here have a cup of angst with your angst and another angst waffle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 20:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20279488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiapurity/pseuds/kiapurity
Summary: Alternative Branching Path: If her memory had returned before Fortuna's Fool... an attempt at what would have been like if Carina had to deal with the split halves.** Assume everything mostly stays the same because this is DMC5's story with a different perspective argh. One shot only.





	Twisted Thorns

**Author's Note:**

> This was pretty difficult to write, tbh. I just needed to get this off my mind and it got sidetracked several times by angst. Argh.

Having your life turned upside down in such a short span of time was a hell of a thing to cope with. Coming back to an island she faintly remembered only to discover that she was fed nothing but lies left her heart blackened and full of rage. That she lost so many years with her precious child when she should have been able to raise him. She only had a precious few days to get to know him before a new tragedy occurred. Someone or something had ripped his arm off and presumably left him for dead on the garage floor.

Having to deal with her son being in a coma for weeks, wondering if he would ever wake up from the injury inflicted upon him. All she could think about was getting in touch with an infamous devil hunter to hunt down the bastard who dared to hurt her only child. It was a chilling misfortune that she would arrive at his office the same day a tree sprouted out of nowhere. She had barged into the office, loudly demanding Dante’s attention that she wanted her son avenged for the loss of his arm.

Carina had sensed that she made the man in black uncomfortable with her angry demands and when her amber eyes met with his green eyes. She could feel faint stirrings of memory provoking at her mind, trying to recall why he felt so familiar to her. She didn’t remember if she had ever met such a person before or not but felt like he was an incomplete version. She ignored the mental proddings and waited impatiently for Dante’s reply.

Dante groaned. He hadn’t counted on Nero’s mother magically appearing out of nowhere with murder in her eyes. The attack had happened a while ago and he wasn’t sure as to how to track down someone but when she angrily pointed out that Yamato was in Nero’s arm, Dante suddenly looked concerned. He was so sure that the sword and the tree were linked in the light of this information and agreed to V’s job offer without question.

The minute Carina said that she was going with them because she personally wanted to plant a bullet between the monster’s eyes was the minute everyone knew they couldn’t stop her. Dante tried to convince her to no avail to have her stay behind and watch over her son.

“I can’t do anything for Nero with the way he is right now, but at least I can shoot the bastard who did this to my baby!”

“...just watch your back.” Dante sighed, knowing that he wasn’t going to convince her to back off.

V frowned, not having expected this development. He too, was unable to come up with a way to persuade Carina to stay behind, she was not the kind of person who listened to reason but there was a time when she did once. However, he found himself unable to speak in her presence as if he was afraid of her. She appeared to show no signs of recognizing him which was both a relief and a source of pain settling in his chest.

When Carina met Dante’s other work partners; Lady and Trish, they had expressed surprise at Dante bringing along a third person. He complained that he was always surrounded by women who were incapable of knowing better. Carina scoffed at that remark, having said that there was no way he could talk her out of this. Mama bear mode was not a thing you could calm down without blood retribution. This led to some considerable confusion between Lady and Trish when they asked for clarification.

“All you need to know is that Nero is my baby and I’m shooting the asshole that took his arm.”

“Hang on a second, he lost his arm? Dante! Really?”

“Look, I just found out myself.”

“Things were too crazy for me to contact anyone.” Carina muttered darkly. “I didn’t know who else Nero knew so I could contact them. I only just found him again...”

“What happened?”

“Separated from him, banished from Fortuna and drugged so hard I forgot my previous life.”

If V could have been any more pale than he was currently, he would have been transparent. Anger was shaking at his core, having heard her words but at the same time, there was something odd about the math involved. He could hear Griffon in his head tease him about having the hots for the woman standing before him. V dismissed Griffon’s voice, trying not to focus too much as they had bigger problems to deal with than an angry woman.

They made it to the tree via a helicopter and after everyone else had gotten off, V pulled Carina back. She whirled around ready to yell at him for doing so but when she read the terror in his eyes, something inside her twisted. She had never seen such raw fear in his eyes before except for that one evening when she parted with a stranger on bad terms.

“Who are you?” She finally asked. “I know you, but I can’t remember.”

“That’s not important right now. What’s important is that you let them do their job.”

“The last person who asked me to stay, he never came back for me.” She snapped back and watched V wince at her words.

He hastily tried to change the subject. “I’ll be making my leave. I suggest you join me.”

“Running away already?” Dante called out. “Didn’t think she would spook you already.”

“One must have an insurance policy.”

Dante wondered what the mysterious man meant by that but Carina didn’t seem to be too thrilled by that statement. She looked back at Dante, asking if there was another demon hunter. Dante shrugged and said that would be Nero.

“He’s unconscious right now… not sure how that’s going to work out.”

“Funny, I would’ve thought Nero would have snapped out of it by now.”

“He lost so much blood that he went into shock.” Carina scoffed. “Blood transfusions was dicey for a while because they could only get some of it from me.”

Dante paused, suddenly realizing that having Carina with them would be just as troublesome as Nero because of their connection to Urizen. He had learned Urizen’s true name from the mysterious man just right before Carina barged in.

“Maybe you should take V’s advice and go.”

“You calling me a dead weight?”

Dante took this cue to run the hell away from Carina with her angry yelling trying to keep up with the terrified half-devil. Damn it, he was too fast for the likes of her, having to take breaks once in a while to pace herself. Despite trying to keep herself fit, she realized she was too much of an ordinary human compared to the likes of Dante. The shotgun got plenty of practice having to blast few of those asshole demons for getting in her way.

The fighting had already started by the time Carina finally caught up to the giant doors. Something behind the door was making her nearly quake in her knees. What was this awful feeling? No, she would hold onto this burning ember of rage and force this monster to his knees. She pushed on, staring at the bored demon sitting on a giant throne made of hell tree in the middle of a pool of blood.

Dante’s partners had been knocked unconscious and it seemed as if Dante was losing the fight badly. She only let out a small “whatthefuck”, not having expected a goddamn tree of a monster. Was her shotgun ever going to be able to make a dent in that thing? Was she going to die here without ever avenging her son? No, she would make this monster suffer… and suffer, he shall!

“Hey, you bastard. We’ve gotta talk about what you did to my baby.”

The demon barely stirred, directing his gaze upon the pissed woman. There was a brief flicker of recognition as he sent a tentacle in her direction-- whether it was to grab her or knock her away with it, she didn’t know. Didn’t even have time to fire off her shotgun when Dante blocked the strike.

“You should’ve gone with V!”

Another tentacle knocked Dante away and Carina turned her head back to the monster before her. She didn’t know what prompted her to say it but the minute she did, the monster seemed to be incensed.

“You are incomplete.”

“I have shorn off everything unnecessary to be perfect. I have power now.”

The shotgun slipped from her hand as she rose it to grab her head, trying to brace against the pain. Goddamnit, why did this have to happen now? The memories were trying to force their way back to her. Something almost there and before she could see whatever it was, a tentacle had wrapped around her waist.

“You. You are strong for a human, your bloodline will give me more.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” She yelled through the headache, reaching for her blasted shotgun. Damn it! Just a little more… “I’ve already shed enough tears for an idiot. NO. MORE.”

There.

She got a firm grasp on the shotgun just as she was being lifted in the air. Now to aim carefully and hit where it hurts the most. Which would be where? The monstrous being was covered in what seemed to be thick armor made from something she couldn’t discern. She fired the shotgun once at the tentacle which made it quiver from the impact.

Another tentacle shot out of nowhere, ripping the back of her hoodie causing her to yell out in surprise to her skin being exposed to air. She twisted around to fire at the other tentacle with colorful curses about what Urizen could do with the tentacles.

“Pitiful. The mark was made by a weak man who perished a long time ago. A queen deserves better.”

She kept yelling in rage as if she was trying to shoot her memories away which brought fresh waves of pain and tears. Click… click… out of ammo. She couldn’t reload the shotgun because the tentacles were pinning her pockets shut. Shit!

“You’re right, a queen deserves better.” She retorted back through tears. “I don’t need a fool who threw away his heart for power!”

Stubborn to a point, she kept fighting against the tentacles. Maybe investing in a sword wasn’t a bad idea, a shotgun could only do so much.

“LET HER GO.”

An explosion rocked the room and she suddenly fell through the air. Carina was preparing to brace for impact when she was grabbed by her son. He appeared to be especially furious at her torn clothing. They landed besides V who stared at her back, at a loss for words regarding the white rose.

“Mom, did he hurt you?”

“No.” She exhaled shakily. “But…”

“I’ll deal with that bastard!” Nero revved up his sword, charging at the monster.

“Are you well?”

“Hell no.” She tried to stand on her feet but faltered.

Damn it. Her strength gave out and she realized that she was hurting more than she thought. The tentacles had squeezed her too tight. Bastard wasn’t being gentle or playing fair. It only served to remind her that she was powerless against such a monster. Tears in her eyes as she forced herself to stand on her own feet once again.

“Stop.” He whispered quietly. “Take a breath. You have endured too much.”

She sighed, letting her strength go out and gave the floor a good thwack with a closed fist. Carina tilted her head to the side, staring at V just for a moment. She studied him carefully and swallowed her emotions. Now she was sure of it, she knew him from another time. Her eyes closed, steady breathing as she invoked forth faint memories.

Out of reach.

“Why didn’t you come back?”

Before V could answer her, Nero was thrown past them as Carina’s head snapped up in alarm. Nero was clearly struggling from the fight, she couldn’t tell if it was from him having barely recovered from being comatose or the monster was just that strong. Her shots should have landed then when she saw the floating red spike. Then she understood. That thing was what blocked her shooting or Nero’s attacks from landing.

Even then, she thought. She should have looked closer, the being was plugged into the tree, as if he was on life support himself. You would think it would be so easy to take him down like this but whatever the tree was feeding him, it was making him invulnerable.

And that pissed her off.

“Round two!” She heard Dante call out as he charged back into the battle, yelling at V to take them and get out of here.

Upon hearing her own son being called a dead weight had her back on her feet ready to yell at Dante. V was clearly not having any of it, needing to hold both mother and son back from mauling the man who was about to save their asses.

“We must retreat.” He simply stated flatly and gave her a familiar glance which she easily acquiesced to, knowing that she lost the argument before she even tried. Hadn’t she done that once before?

“That’s the second time I’ve had to yield.” She muttered under her breath.

With that swift retreat out of the tree, Nero was still bothered by being insulted so badly like that even with his missing arm weighing heavily on his mind. Carina could only sigh at him before complaining about him having escaped from the hospital. They were forced to retreat from the scene with Morrison after the tree roots started breaking through the ground.

“Yeah, what about you, mom? What were you thinking…”

“I was thinking that I needed to make that bastard suffer. No one hurts my baby and gets away with it. You’re the only thing I have left.” She shot V a side glance which caught his eye and he returned it with a puzzled look. “Look, I know I’m an ordinary human compared to you and Dante.”

“What now?”

“You work on getting stronger. I’ll stay here and gather information. As for you, Carina. I need some clarification.”

“I’m going to call ahead and see if Nico can pick us up. Kyrie is going to be upset at me…” Nero sighed, dashing off for a phone booth with Morrison not too far behind, saying that he needed to use the phone as well.

That left Carina and V standing in the middle of streets, a safe distance away from the tree but with a considerable tension in the air between the two. There were so much that they wanted to say something to each other but how to break the ice?

“So. If you are who I think you are…” Carina began.

Griffon interrupted the tension by appearing out of nowhere and squawking loudly at them. “Ooh, Sugar Tits has something important to say?”

“Please do not call her that.” V groaned, hand on his face. “She’s liable to shoot both of us for that.”

“Your bird has no filter.” She replied.

“I am also well aware of that.”

“Shakespeare here has so much he wants to say to you but you’re one hell of a scary chick.” The bird squawked. “And I’m a bird saying this!”

“Thanks for the compliment. What did you say your name was?”

“V.” He answered flatly, already knowing what she was going to say next.

“That short for Vergil?” She scoffed.

Griffon nearly dropped out of the air from shock while V just stared at her. How.

“What gave you the impression?”

“Each joy is a love.” Carina gave a loud snort after throwing out a familiar quote, only to witness V slowly turning bright red upon remembering the context. “I would think that answers your question. But my question? Why didn’t you come back.”

“There were unforeseen circumstances that were outside my control. I was so close to going through with my plan then I would have returned to Fortuna. It would seem that my meddlesome brother threw a wrench in everything. Then…” He swallowed bitterly. “I was forced into slavery by Mundus.”

“Is that why you’re so skinny? How badly did he break you?”

V only lowered his head in shame. “It’s complicated. Nero…?”

“Yours.” Carina rolled her eyes. “Even you can do the math.”

“Please… don’t tell Nero.”

“Why?”

“I can barely handle your anger. I can’t face him like this, incomplete as I am right now.”

“So.” Carina began, blowing a stray hair strand out of her face. “I’m guessing you did something so stupid and split yourself between this hot goth look and a goddamn tree demon?”

“...yes.”

“Vergil. If I were you, I’d be begging -- what.”

The last thing she expected was for V to actually get on his knees, as frail as he appeared to be. He had his head down and if she could see his face right now, shame was deeply embedded across his face.

“I have no right to ask you for forgiveness. You have every right to be furious because of what I did to you and Nero. You were correct, I should have never left or... I should have taken you with me.”

“What’s done is done.”

“But what I did to Nero, that cannot be forgiven so easily.”

Carina only stared at V for several minutes before finally exploding. “YOU CUT YOUR OWN SON’S ARM OFF?! FOR WHAT?!”

She was ready to throttle him but it was so difficult to stay angry at someone who was clearly on his knees. Wasn’t that what she wanted, after all? For whoever hurt her baby to be on their knees and beg for mercy?

No, this felt wrong.

“Agh.” She dropped in front of him. “Damn it. Why?”

“Because I’m a miserable fool who obsessed with power at the cost of everything he held dear. I even lost you because of it.”

“What’s up?” Nero called out and the two suddenly realized the jig was up and quickly pretended to search for something on the ground. “Why are you two on the ground?”

“We’re looking for my contact lens.”

“Mom… since when do you wear contacts?”

Carina and V wound up butting their heads together and fell apart in pain. Griffon looked at Nero and if he could shrug, he was definitely shrugging.

“These two birdbrains aren’t exactly the brightest.”

“Whatever. Nico’s on her way… we’ll meet her in the city limits.”

V got up first. “This will be where we part ways. See you in a month.”

Nero helped his mother get back to her feet. She was still hurting, physically and emotionally. She only nodded at V. “I suppose.”

“Aw, hell, mom. It’s probably better you don’t come.”

“Make me.” She gave her son a withering look. “I have unfinished business with… what the hell is that.”

“Urizen.” V replied.

“...that’s his name?”

“Yeah.” Nero didn’t seem to find this odd.

He had to practically drag his mother off while she was still glaring at V with a “whatthefuck” expression stuck on her face.

\--

The following month, Nero couldn’t even manage to convince his mom to sit out on this one. Kyrie even encouraged Carina to stick by her son saying it was important that he get to know his mom better. Nero could literally never say no to Kyrie even if he thought it was a bad idea.

So here he was, stuck in the van with his mom and Nico. Nico was still working on the shotgun, trying to get some new upgrades done. At the very least, Carina had tentatively agreed to stay behind in the van with Nico while Nero took care of the dirty work. Thank goodness for small favors.

“Why do I get the feeling that there’s a weird tension between you and V?”

“Oh, is it one of those belligerent sexual tension kind of thing?” Nico interrupted.

“...Nico! Really?!”

Carina stared straight ahead. “Nope, there’s nothing.”

“Mom, you’re not really being honest here. Whatever it is, it can’t interfere with this mission.”

“It won’t.” 

“Well, I’m off then.”

“Stay safe and kick some demon ass!” Carina called after Nero. “God, this feels stupid as if I’m seeing him off to school.”

“Close enough.” Nico grinned. “He’ll totally school them with the new arms. Gotta get this one finished now.”

Carina could only sigh and flop on the seats in the van. The bruises on her body from the tentacles were light, sickly green. She was still pissed at herself for not having realized sooner. However, her anger had considerably cooled down towards V. He seemed really remorseful, even kneeling before her. Would Vergil have ever done that?

Clearly, his human heart did. 

That month had given her a lot of time to reflect on how differently V behaved. More emotional and open than she remembered. Still, there were some things he didn’t say and she could read between the lines. She could only wonder if he was taking care of himself, getting proper meals and sleeping well. Aw, hell, who was she kidding? She had to hope that he was still alive at any rate.

“Why am I so stupid for one man?”

“Hm? What was that?” Nico called out from the back.

“Just thinking about Nero’s father.”

“You remember his name yet?”

“No…” she said quietly. “Just some little things came back. Not ready to divulge them yet.”

“I would hope he was great in bed at the least because that’d suck to have a kid like Nero from a terrible one night stand.”

“Month.” She mumbled. “It was a month, not a one night stand. And we actually were married. For little good that did me. Stupid power… always mattering more than me.”

It was so hard not to slip in that little cesspool every time she thought about being rejected time and time again. Her life had been full of people desiring other things over her and it hurt so damn much, being unwanted time and time again. Even her own blood relatives had rejected her. Before she had met him, she had all but resigned herself to a fate of being unloved and only displayed as a trophy. It was because of him, she found the will to fight for what she believed she deserved.

Now?

It was a struggle to keep fighting in spite of how much she lost. She mentally went through a checklist of what she had now. She finally had her lost child back, some of her memories but she wasn’t sure if she really had her husband back. She couldn’t think of a coping method to deal with the fact that her idiot husband had split himself into two. The therapist back in her other life would not have believed her either.

“You’re quiet.”

“Sorry, thinking. Too much.”

“You’re definitely bummed out.” Nico shrugged. “Hit up something on the jukebox and you’ll feel better.”

Carina glanced over at the jukebox. Why not? She hit a random song and popped back on the seat. Leaning back, she closed her eyes while listening to the beats in an attempt to lull herself away from the pit of despair. There wasn’t time to think about being depressed, not when they had a world to save.

She somehow managed to doze off after several songs while Nico decided that enough time had passed by and went to call Nero. Nico glanced back at Carina. “Hey, wake up and buckle up, support call.”

“Oh boy…”

Carina hadn’t quite gotten used to Nico’s driving. There were a lot of shortcuts involved and having to take alternative routes considering how the damn roots had rearranged the streets and the building themselves. Probably a good thing she skipped breakfast due to jitters. Kyrie still made Carina take a sandwich for later anyway and even packed extra just in case they ran into more people. She was appreciative of how Nero found someone who cared so much for people she didn’t even know.

People. From the look of things as Nico drove through the city, there were nothing but hollowed out shells. A mockery of who used to breathe. Didn’t see any recent demon activity but that wasn’t going to stop Nico from occasionally using one as a speed bump. Carina felt a thud and sighed, marking that down in her notebook.

“That’s the eighth speed bump…”

“Shoot, I was hoping I had more than that. Going to make an air landing!”

“A what--”

Nero made a small annoyed noise as the van landed next to him. Carina muttered, wondering if it was a good time to discover religion from Nico’s driving. The two proceeded to argue in middle of restocking while she investigated around the area some. The argument over shortly, Nero back to the mission and Nico having to find another way around.

Two more bumps, two more marks in the book. The van finally stopped in an open area as she looked up. “Eh?”

“Well, it looks like the big baddie’s dead now.”

“Too bad I couldn’t have taken a shot.”

“Hey, V! Your favorite Sugar Tits is here!”

She narrowed her eyes at the bird. Too bad the shotgun was still being worked on or she would have shot Griffon on sight. Instead, she opted to throw her notebook at him out of frustration. It bounced off then onto Shadow who was startled enough to spike it. V sighed, retrieving the notebook and gave Shadow a small apology pat on her head.

“I believe you need this back?”

“Thank you.” She grabbed it, embarrassed. “Not like I was really working on anything urgent, just counting all the demons Nico has drove over. My writings are on the laptop and it’s not like I can do much with no real way to recharge the battery.”

“You’re a writer?”

“Articles and books.” She sighed, looking at V who had managed to settle himself on a seat across from her. “I hope you’ve been eating and sleeping.”

“I manage what I can. And no, I have left that cloak behind years ago.”

“Good, because laundering that was a bitch. Never again. If you’re hungry, Kyrie packed sandwiches.”

“Kyrie?”

“Nero’s significant other. She stayed behind because they’ve got three orphans to take care of. And before you ask, I came along because I was worrying too much about you. God knows that you’re terrible at taking care of yourself.”

V chuckled and Griffon glanced over. “She’s not completely wrong. You’re practically made of paper as it is. Any demon could have blown you into outer space by sneezing.”

Carina broke out the cooler and pulled out a sandwich, handing it over to V with nary a word. He graciously accepted the offer and began eating. They just sat there in awkward silence for a little while before Nero popped his head in to make sure no one was accidentally dying or something. He still couldn’t figure out why they were being so weird around each other and only hoped Nico was wrong about the belligerent sexual tension. He still couldn’t get a word out of his mom regarding his father.

Nero had long suspected that her memory had came back on the matter but she was clearly unwilling to elaborate, claiming that what she remembered would only scar him for life. “No one’s dying here.”

“There are still more roots we must deal with promptly.”

“I suppose I have to stay behind again?”

“Not open for discussion.”

“In other words, Sugar Tits, he would like you to be very much alive for sexy times.”

Nero glared at the bird. “MY MOM IS NOT TO BE OBJECTIFIED IN THAT MANNER! Don’t talk dirty around her!” He made an effort to grab the bird which easily evaded his grasp. “If I still had my goddamn devil bringer, you wouldn’t be talking--!”

Rest of the morning was nothing but awkward silence and few death threats being tossed at Griffon from either Nico or Nero. Carina hated having to stay behind even as she watched them leave the van. Was Nico intentionally stalling on the shotgun’s upgrade? She asked Nico and Nico was halfway between offended and feeling a little guilty.

“It’s just that I have to prioritize… and besides, Nero would totally have a cow if something happened to you. Can’t rush art either.”

“Okay then. I just hope Urizen forgot about me.”

“Huhwha. Whaddya mean?”

“I shot at him.”

“Hooooleeeeeee. You’ve got some cojones!”

“No kidding. At least, there shouldn’t be a way for him to track me.” She rubbed at her neck; there was no change in the rose’s color.

“Hang on, another call!”

Carina had long since given up on counting all the speed bumps and wondering how Nico managed to be able to track down where the men were. It was definitely some kind of fourth sense. Not to mention how the van was able to take so much abuse with crashing through physical objects and not take a dent.

“...you modded this van like a weapon, didn’t you?”

“Kinda?”

Nico made another pit stop for Nero through the goddamn skylights and at that point, Carina really couldn’t comment on the driving anymore. Once Nico hopped out of the van, Carina barely had time to look up before she heard Nico yell for a sheet, there was something about a naked lady? Carina pulled out something from under the seat and came out of the van with a towel.

“What the crap… what’s she covered in?”

“Something. Looks like she was being used as a battery for whatever.” Nero shook his head, still annoyed at Nico’s earlier teasing. “I have to tell Kyrie…”

“Tell her what?”

Nero tried to explain what Nico said and Carina shot Nico an “Are you fucking kidding me” face. “Whatever, I would think Kyrie would be more offended that you didn’t save anyone than you accidentally seeing a naked helpless woman.”

Nero nodded, still looking unsure at his mom as they all got back into the van. Lady was now lying on the seats. It appeared as though as she wasn’t going to wake up any time soon so they drove in silence before coming to another stop. There was that walking alien-like creature that was halting their process so Nero hopped out to take care of it.

Lady barely stirred, eyes slowly opening. “Where am I…?”

Carina proceeded to catch Lady up on what had transpired since that month. There was some considerable disbelief as Lady couldn’t believe that she had been trapped in that screaming mermaid creature. She also told Carina something rather unsettling, Urizen hadn’t entirely forgotten her.

“Is he going to send anyone after me?”

“I uh, don’t know. Don’t remember anything more than that.”

“Mm.” Carina made a small concerned sound. “I just don’t want to be a walking target for everyone involved. Part of why I didn’t want to stay behind in case…”

“Relax! I think the boys are a bigger target than you are.” Nico called from the driver’s seat.

That still didn’t make her feel any better, still protective over Nero. She leaned back in her seat, lost in her thoughts when they felt a whump. Nero had taken down the alien thing with no fuss and Nico started the engines, driving up next to him. Nero tossed a new demon part at her and got back in the van. He had more questions for Lady as Carina stared out of the window. V would join them shortly and she found herself feeling a little weirdly unsettled by how he subtly acknowledged Lady’s presence. Shadow manifested herself and pressed herself into Carina’s legs, forcing her to pet the giant black feline as if she could sense the woman’s distress.

After the men had left, Lady looked at Carina. “Who is that man anyway?”

“It’s complicated.”

“There’s something between you two.”

“Thank god! I knew I wasn’t imagining things!” Nico crowed from the back, working with the new demon parts from Nero and V. 

“...I’m not denying that he’s hot.” Carina crossed her arms. “I mean, he’s always hot but this goth look is new.”

“We also need to dig our way out too after I’m done with these!”

After the arduous task of digging a free path for the van from all the goddamn rubble, Carina was definitely ready for a nap. She had told Nico off for suggesting that Lady should help them dig before pointing out that if Nico had been used as a battery for a month, she wouldn’t be in any shape either. Lady pointed out that she could still help out if she had something to wear.

“Shotgun done yet?”

“Yeah, yeah, hold onto your pants! I’ll get to that now!”

Finally. The blasted shotgun got the overdue upgrade. Carina felt like she could use some stress relief by shooting a couple of unfortunate demons who wandered too close to the van.

“Perfect.”

“You can’t rush art…” Nico groaned. “Besides, you’re not allowed anywhere near Urizen.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Buckle time!”

More speed bumps, who the hell was going to even bother with the count as it were? The van came to a stop not too far from the tree itself. Carina looked at the area with some considerable confusion when she hopped out of the van. Was that a house up over there?

“Hey, mom. You doing ok?”

“Yeah. I thought V was with you?”

“He’s looking for the devil sword Sparda.”

“...I should go after him.”

“Whoa. Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Nero was about to grab his mom’s shoulder in protest but thought better of it. 

“I’ve got a shotgun! Why do people think I can’t handle things? I mean...” She lowered her head. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“You sure, mom?”

“Yeah. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for a phone booth if I need an emergency pick-up. Besides, if he’s looking for the sword, it’s probably a good idea I go with him to avoid Urizen.”

“You won’t have to worry about him once I get rid of him for good.”

Carina reached up to give her son a forehead kiss. “Be safe, baby. Don’t want to make Kyrie sad.”

“Jeez, mom.” Nero groaned, sounding like an exasperated child while he watched his mom retreat off in the direction V had taken.

He still didn’t understand the weird thing between the two of them and wasn’t sure if he wanted to know assuming Nico was right. Nico stuck her head out of the window and yelled at Nero to get back in the van but not before asking after his mom. Nero rolled his eyes and said that it was her business and not to assume anything totally weird.

“Yeah, she’s gonna find him to bone him.”

“Nico, PLEASE.”

\--

Carina just had to get away from the van. Not that it was a bad thing, she just didn’t want to deal with awkward silence and Nico asking for more details than she was willing to reveal. At least the path was easily discernible from rubble having been broken through that giant thing with a purple eye. She didn’t even know what the name of that summon was other than she had nicknamed it Kool-Aid in her head.

Not much of demon activity on the scenic route she was taking either. Being stuck with her thoughts had her stuck in a weird place where she was constantly angry at her idiot husband and feeling like she had a severe lack of confidence in herself. When she snapped out of the unsettling thoughts, she had noticed there was a crowd of empusa following her.

“...What.”

The group nervously chittered at her, keeping their distance as she kept walking. They still insisted on following her, despite their fear of the shotgun. She stopped and whirled around, shotgun aimed at the group. They scattered behind various objects.

“Look, if you’re going to try to kidnap me for your king, dream on.”

“Is that what you determined their intentions to be?” V spoke, calmly while reading the book.

“Hello to you too.” She sighed, her sight now on V with the shotgun still aimed at the crowd. “They’ve been making me a little nervous.”

V closed his book, sighing loudly with his fingers outstretched ready to snap. The empusa crowd took the hint and made a swift retreat before he had a chance to even summon any of his familiars.

“Any reason why you chose to follow me in my folly?”

“You suck at taking care of yourself.”

He gave a small chuckle, and pushed himself off of the rubble to a standing position. Griffon had returned, complaining about finding weird nobodies dancing. Carina had to assume that they were some kind of demon, being wholly unfamiliar with denizens of the underworld. They journeyed together in silence and even it was annoying the bird who squawked at them to stop being weird and go make out already. Hell, he would fly off to do more snooping if it would at least give them some measure of privacy.

“...why do people think there’s some unresolved sexual tension?” Carina complained loudly. “It’s not as if there’s anything there if I was so easily forgotten--”

She wasn’t expecting to be interrupted by V grabbing her into an embrace and kissing her deeply.

“Stop talking.” He said once he came up for air, still gently cradling her face with one hand. “Your thoughts are your own worst enemy. I’ve been watching you drown in unnecessary self-doubt.”

“And here I thought you stopped feeling things for me.” She had the grace to blush furiously. She didn’t realize she was that touch starved, was she?!

“Never. We must press on, the sword is of utmost urgency.”

V let Carina go, retrieving his cane from the ground and turned around, heading off in the direction towards the nobodies. She blinked and bolted after him, a lot of questions on her mind regarding the sword.

“Hang on a second! The sword?”

“It was my father’s. Stronger than the swords left to me and my twin. Currently, I can only presume Dante is dead and it may have to be up to Nero to wield it since I have very little strength.”

“And the plan to deal with Urizen is what, exactly?”

She couldn’t get an answer out of V regarding that before they were interrupted by several demons in which they had to be dealt with in a swift manner. It felt as though as V wasn’t certain of his current plan. She knew she wasn’t the only one drowning in self doubt. Griffon returned, expressing disappointment that boots were not knocking. The bird was largely ignored by the pair once they arrived upon the nobodies.

“Is that the sword?”

“Yes. I’ll be taking that back.”

How odd, demons worshiping the sword that was currently embedded into the side of a ruined building. Carina thought back to the empusa crowd that had been following her previously. She glanced back, they were still there and hiding behind the rubble.

“You’re not losing them that easily.” Griffon told the woman. “They consider you the queen, quietly chanting the word over. Personally, Sugar Tits is a better nickname.”

“Do I need to remind you that I can shoot you?” Carina said, sounding absolutely exhausted.

“You and that kid are such hot-heads!” The bird retorted.

Once the nobodies were dealt with and the tree root entangling the ruined building shattered, the ruined wall came down. The sword, now freed but V was unable to lift it, cursing his poor luck. So many years ago, he had desired the power of the sword. How bitter it was that he was now trapped in a body that was unable to wield the sword’s strength. Shadow made a concerned rumbling while Griffon took the time to interpret for the others.

“...you said he was dead?”

“I had assumed as such.”

Dante finally revived by the way of almost being stabbed with the sword which took both Griffon and Carina off guard. She knew the rage that she saw on V’s face was all too real even though he had explained it away as knowing that Dante was too stubborn to wake up. Not like Carina ever knew what it was like to have a sibling, much less an annoying one.

“A month? Jeez. And you’re here too?”

“I have a stake in this too.”

“Shouldn’t have come.”

Dante stretched out his limbs but not before grabbing Griffon by the neck and tossing him aside while he pointed out that Nero was on his way to Urizen. Carina was trying to steady her breathing to quell her panic, saying that she had to go get him. Dante said that it was his fight and to leave Nero out of this.

“Pardon? What makes it your fight?!”

“He shouldn’t be the one to fight his old man.”

Carina stared at Dante and then back at V. “What did you exactly tell him?”

“That a great demon was about to resurrect and that we needed his help?”

Carina turned her head back to Dante but he had run away before she could yell at him. She could only exclaim out an angry “son of a” before interrupting herself with an angry sigh.

“I see what you mean now.”

If she thought last month was bad, this took it to completely new levels. Having to chase after the annoying twin only to get dumped a naked Trish on them. She didn’t know how she was able to find a sheet to cover Trish’s modesty but she managed it. While the blonde recovered, Carina set on trying to recover more things from the rubble. Damn it, she could totally go for a sandwich right now. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a phone booth nearby for her to request a pick up. Damn it.

When she got back to the others, she had walked onto V retelling what happened that night in which he used Yamato to split himself in two with the intention of shedding his humanity and all the nightmares that accompanied him for the last several decades. That certainly explained using a character from William Blake’s poetry to name the demon half that was currently screwing up things for everyone. As well as why a lot of the familiar feelings back when she was trying to shoot Urizen, pissed off over what had happened to Nero.

“Explains why I couldn’t get that asshole to bend at the knee for me. You don’t have Yamato with you, I take it?”

“Correct.”

After Trish tossed out that she wasn’t mommy, Carina had a blank look on her face but not before finally getting one hell of a weird explanation regarding Trish’s appearance. She never knew that Trish was modeled after the twins’ mother by Mundus then she snapped her head back to V.

“I feel like I need to shoot this Mundus.”

“Dante took care of him.” Trish answered Carina.

“Is that why Vergil’s gone stupid?”

V winced.

\--

Everyone were finally reunited at the van and Carina had to watch the most fucking ridiculous sequence in which Dante did a perfect dance impression with a hat Nico made. She was angrily chomping at her sandwich, grateful for the extras that were packed away. Thank god, her baby was okay. Nero was mostly insulted rather than hurt as he was having it out with Dante who wanted him to stay behind. V urged them that they should go now and gave Carina a brief glance.

It hurt her heart to see that V had been crumbling as if his time was running out. Trish had given her a brief rundown of what Mundus had done to Vergil but her knowledge was secondhand considering if she so much as came near Nelo Angelo, he would freak out. So their interactions were strictly limited and she mentioned that there were amulets that transformed the Force Edge into the devil sword Sparda. She said that she had the amulets stored in Dante’s desk drawer back at the office, though he never bothered looking in that drawer.

Carina hadn’t remembered an amulet back in Fortuna but she supposed that was a given since her memory was still pretty hazy. She wasn’t happy about being left behind but figured it was for the best since her empusa stalkers were still following her and that would have been entirely too distracting for everyone to deal with.

“What’s with those?” Nico finally asked Carina.

“...Griffon said that they decided that I’m their queen.”

“What.” The cigarette fell out of Nico’s mouth. “You shitting me?”

“I shit you not. Urizen is my husband’s demonic half. May have made out with his human half but that was more of a “shut up please” kiss from him…”

“I KNEW THERE WAS SEXUAL TENSION!”

Nico was in the middle of her victory dance before Lady gave Trish a questioning look before Trish nodded back.

“We’ve been trying to guess who Nero’s father is for some time.” Lady said. “And we both lost the bet.”

“There was a bet?” Carina said in disbelief. “Hang on, what was the bet?”

“We figured it wasn’t Dante, so we assumed he was a long long Sparda descendant or something. Just didn’t think Vergil was his father on the basis of the man being really cold and distant.”

“I promise you that he’s not at all that cold.” Carina muttered, pacing back and forth. “Okay, maybe a little chilly in his devil form but I hardly noticed…”

No one was willing to pursue that line of thought as Nico interrupted her dancing to point out that they should get ready to leave any time in case there was a pick up call. Trish said that she doubted there were any phone booths in hell in which Nico retorted with a “You never know!”

There was some considerable arguing where they should drive to for a pickup location before Carina keeled over in pain. Her eyes were watering with the pain as she shed her hoodie off, exposing her tank top and her back to the air. Trish gave a brief glance over and said that she had never seen anything like this before. Carina was bracing the raw pain that washed over her, like a combination of burning and freezing.

“Whoa, that turned black? But your skin isn’t rotting--”

“It’s not. It changed.”

“He’s back.” She swallowed through tears of pain. “He’s alive. I need to go to him to smack him for putting me through this shit. Bastard…”

Not too long after Nico had to stop the van suddenly, Dante came storming on the horizon. He was clearly not happy about his brother’s return, grabbing a spare Kalina-Ann 2 from Nico before Lady yelled in disbelief. However, Dante did not expect a shotgun in his face.

“You do anything and I will kill you and rip your guts out and hang you out to dry for the vultures to feast upon.”

“Holy shit.” Nico barely had time to think, much less breathe.

“You’re so fucking stupid. You kept running away the entire time V wanted to talk to you and now you want to kill Vergil?”

“You don’t know what he’s done! How many people he killed for that tower, the things he’s done--”

“And?” She snapped back, getting into Dante’s face, shotgun now dangerously under his chin. “He acknowledged what he did. Now that he’s complete, he needs this chance to make up for it.”

“You’re nuts. He’s not going to do something like that, you were probably just a stepping stone in his plans.”

She could have shot him on the spot for that but her face twisted with grief. “Damn you for saying that.”

With the shotgun now lowered, Dante turned around and left. How dare he bring her doubts back to the surface! She was on the edge of tears again, trying to convince herself to not start crying again. Carina didn’t need to fight with her thoughts, enough was enough. Trish grabbed her, trying to calm her down. Even Trish had thought Dante went too far in saying that.

“Shh. It’s okay…”

“We gotta go, like now!” Nico shouted.

The van started moving again in response to the tree being presently unhappy. Carina was curled up in the corner, refusing to speak. Her face was buried in her arms, body slightly shaking. She tried to recall what it was that V had said after kissing her. Was that just a distraction? She couldn’t remember through the tears and recalled a painful memory in which her uncle had said she was no better than her mother who had whored herself out to a stranger. She only remember shouting back that she was different, but was she? Tears stung her raw cheeks.

She barely had noticed her own child who had shaken her. Seeing her face broke his heart.

“You knew, mom?”

“Yes…” She wiped them away. “He told me not to tell you. Stupid idiot…”

“When did you remember?”

“After Urizen grabbed me. Maybe I was better off never remembering.”

“I’ll make this right. I promise! NICO! Stop the van!”

“Are you crazy!?”

“Forget it--” Nero pushed his away through before anyone could react.

Maternal instincts kicked in, Carina went after him and rolled out of the van. She landed with an oomph. That was going to be a new set of bruises, if not a cracked rib from that. Great idea. Nero was already out of sight as she sighed a “dammit” at having planned this out poorly. The empusa crowd peered out from behind the rubble as a grin slowly drew upon her face.

“Hello.”

\--

After delivering a solid bitchslap to his annoying uncle, finally getting a well deserved revenge for being called dead weight. Nero had turned onto his father, cracking knuckles on both sets of arms after the usual banter.

“What’s the big idea?! Making my mom cry like that?!”

“Wh--”

“I may have uh, said something.” Dante muttered. “Ow, my face…”

“I’ll deal with you later.” Both father and son shouted at Dante.

“Jeez.” He rubbed at his jaw.

He wished he had popcorn at this priceless moment of watching Nero easily hand Vergil’s ass over. The kid was running on sheer rage at this point of having to put up with the family’s nonsense and ...maybe he really did overdo it by upsetting his mom.

“Oh, man. You cut your son’s arm off for more power and you still lost…”

“Enough!” Nero snapped at Dante, still pointing at him. “What the hell did you say to my mom!?”

“How to put this delicately? I may have suggested that your father used her--”

Dante was suddenly now counting blue swords aimed at his head as Nero turned around to see a very furious Vergil.

“You would suggest that I would treat my wife in that manner? After I had to calm her doubts earlier.”

“Holy shit. You DO have feelings. Well, other than being annoyed with me since forever.”

They were interrupted by a crowd of empusa screeching, carrying a lift repurposed from scavenged door. A very unimpressed Carina was sitting on the lift, shotgun in her lap.

“Mom?” Nero sounded halfway between embarrassed and horrified. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the van?”

“I told you, I’m capable of handling myself.”

“How did you even command them?”

“Apparently, I’m the queen of something and they’re my royal attendants. I think.”

Vergil had the grace to look a little embarrassed, entirely forgetting that Urizen did take over Hell and by extension, he was now the ruler of Hell. Whoops.

“Uh, well.” Dante got off the ground. “We kind of do have a tree to cut down.”

Yes, the same hell tree that everyone was standing on. The damn tree did have to come down after all and it was entirely up to Vergil to clean up his own mess. He had acknowledged that much.

“You kidding me? Leaving after I came all the way up here?! Well, that was mostly for my baby.”

“Love you too, Mom.” Nero said with a sigh and glared at his male relatives.

Dante was clearly still trying to escape, barely perfecting the technique. “See you later, kid!”

“I really should shoot your uncle, Nero.”

“He would just walk it off.”

Vergil had tossed over his poetry book to Nero. “I’ll be back for that.” Then he gave Carina a slightly amused smile. “I won’t break my promise this time.”

“I’m not giving you a year this time. Either you come back or you don’t.”

He only gave a small nod before transforming and flying downwards, leaving wife and son watching from the tree. They both muttered at the same time, “Idiots…”

“...I’m a crap mom. I just noticed your arm now.” Carina glanced at Nero’s new arm. “I hope you used it to beat some sense into your father.”

“Plenty. I suppose it’s time to get back home, then?”

“...there’s the Empusa Express.”

“Mom, no.”

\--

A month later back at Carina’s cottage in Fortuna, she had chosen to move back to it of her own free will. Sure, she had plenty of help but it was still lonely with all the memories lingering in the air. It would have been too much for her to constantly stay with Nero because she felt like she would only get underfoot. Kyrie made Nero visit every day because she was worried that Carina might have a touch of depression since the tree came down and there was no sign of the twins.

Figures. She thought bitterly to herself. Knew better than that to set herself up for disappointment.

Then there was a gentle knock on the door, interrupting her sour thoughts. She figured that the knocking was probably a package for her. She got off the couch to open the front door only to be greeted by the sight of her wayward husband, holding a bouquet of roses.

“Forgive me? I, ah, misplaced the key.”

“Hah, I moved it out of the door frame. Wasn’t that safe. Never know if a handsome devil would show up or not.”

“Still a little mad at me?”

“Define ‘little’.” Carina snorted, taking the roses from his hands. She would need something for them as she set off to search for an available vase.

“I’m not sure where to start.” He sighed. “Dante insisted on few friendly matches before I had to forcibly remind him that I do have a promise to see through.”

“I still need to shoot your brother.”

“Did stab him few times.”

The roses were properly placed in the vase on the kitchen table, Carina returned to discover Vergil on his knees, somewhat groveling.

“Oh god, not again.”

“Forgive me?”

“Are you doing this just to get out of sleeping on the porch tonight?”

“If you’ll still share your bed with me.” He hesitated a bit after raising to his feet. “I mean what I said. I could never forget you. I buried you in my human half to keep you safe. You will always be a part of my heart, now and evermore.”

“Good enough. Get up, you doof.” Carina said, gesturing to the bedroom. “You have some more groveling to do, if you catch my drift.”

“I assumed as much, wife.” Vergil caught Carina in an embrace and kissed her.


End file.
